Different
by This Girl Maybe
Summary: Do you want to hurt me? Tell me why...is it because I'm different? Or too much like you?" SJ
1. Different

Title: Different  
  
Author: Anneka Carter  
  
Summary: "Do you want to hurt me? Tell me why...is it because I'm different? Or too much like you?" S/J  
  
A/N: My first WAT fic…be nice!  
  
*  
  
Jack stood on the street, the unusually warm New York sunshine beating down on his back, yet he still didn't take off his heavy black jacket, wanting to maintain his professional façade, if not for the parents but for himself. Vivian reeled off the information again, his mind garbling the words until they turned into something unrecognisable. Something happy. That was the problem with his job; things rarely turned out happily.  
  
He saw Vivian look to him expectantly, with an amused yet almost disappointed face; they were searching for a person, and they deserved to have every agent's full attention on them. "I'm sorry, can you run that by me again?" He asked in his stern voice, but it didn't seem to intimidate his fellow officer. She just rolled her eyes and began again.  
  
"Sixteen year old school girl, Thea Maxwell. Caucasian adopted daughter of two successful African American financiers. Last seen walking down this street to get home, which is twenty minutes away from school. We've got two witnesses who place her here, and then nothing." Vivian said with a cynical voice; how could people not see a girl disappear at four o'clock in the afternoon on a busy street?  
  
"Any chance she had a bust up with her parents and ran away?" Jack asked. He knew what teenagers were like, and so called rebellious teenagers had a penchant for taking off and returning a day later with their tail between their legs.  
  
"Apparently, that's totally out of character." Samantha informed them, as she joined the pair standing near the only shade on the street, a lone elm tree looming outside a block of apartments. "I just talked to her sister Grace, says Thea adored her parents and liked spending time with them. She didn't have any friends, but didn't seem to be upset with that."  
  
"Doesn't that sound a little too….?" Vivian searched for a word.  
  
"Fake?" Samantha provided and then shook her head, "Grace was seriously shaking, it took us about an hour to stop her crying. She could barely remember her own name she was so upset. I think she's telling the truth."  
  
Jack weighed up his options; it didn't sound, to him, like Thea Maxwell had run away but he couldn't discount the idea completely. "Vivian, catch up with Martin…I want you to see if she was remotely close to anyone at school. They might be able to give us more of an objective picture than her sister. And sniff around the idea of boyfriends or boys at school who seemed to take an unhealthy interest in her."  
  
"Right." Vivian nodded, walking away from Samantha and Jack, pulling out her cellphone and ringing her colleague to journey to Goldman High School.  
  
Jack turned to Samantha, "We're going to check out the rest of the family and take a look around her bedroom. See what kind of things our Thea Maxwell's been hiding."  
  
*  
  
Dappled light cascaded into the bedroom as Sam pulled open the curtains of Thea's top floor bedroom, Jack stood behind her glancing at the decoration that the Maxwell girl had employed. The room was obsessively tidy, but comfortable. Bands of the sixties littered the walls and the names were disconcertingly familiar to Jack. "Good taste." He said pointing to a promotional poster for Jimi Hendrix. Sam quirked an eyebrow.  
  
"You? A Hendrix fan?" She queried. He'd told her of his wild youth, but she found it impossible to imagine him with his friends smoking pot and listening to Jimi on their LP's. "Whatever you say."  
  
Jack just smiled good-naturedly as he walked the length of Thea's bedroom, his finger tracing the bottom of the posters neatly ordered on the wall. He stopped momentarily to look in the wardrobe, briefly glancing through her clothes. "Doesn't look like anything's gone." He said matter of factly walking over to a shelf unit holding books and film cassettes. He looked down the line of films that Thea had in her possession, impressed by the sixteen year old's taste. "A fan of the old movies?" Jack mused, "Not exactly the regular teenager."  
  
"And look at this…" Sam gestured towards a bookcase on the other side of the room and Jack followed her. "She's got "Crime and Punishment" in Russian…., "The History of Modern Russian Culture", "The Essential Russian Dictionary."" She listed the names jumping out of the bookcase. "Did the parents say where they adopted her from?"  
  
But before Jack could answer, a voice jumped out behind them. "She is Russian, if that's what you were wondering." Karen Maxwell said quietly, walking over the threshold and touching the books tenderly. "We took her last year on holiday there. She talked to locals…it was amazing."  
  
"Has your daughter ever expressed any interest in finding her real parents?" Jack asked Karen earning a sharp glare from Sam.   
  
Karen looked down at the floor, and swallowed uneasily. "No. We always thought that she might, and we promised that we'd support her whatever she decided. But she's never said anything to us." She admitted. "Maybe you should talk to Grace about that though. She might have told her something."  
  
"Mrs Maxwell, can you think of anyone that might have a grudge against you or your family? Someone that might want to harm Thea?" Sam asked gently. It was always hard to ask that question; it felt like you were insinuating that it was the parents fault, and it was so hard to see them contemplate if their actions caused their child's abduction.  
  
"Not that I can think of. Joe and I have always tried to do everything we can to work ethically, but I'm sure you can imagine that it's hard to make profits when you're not ruthless in the business world." She wiped a lone tear from her eye. "You think she's been abducted, don't you?"  
  
"It's a distinct possibility."  
  
*  
  
Next chapter should be up soon. 


	2. Her Special Relationship

Chapter Two  
  
*  
  
16 HOURS MISSING  
  
Martin sifted through the books stored in the overcrowded locker, sheets of paper occasionally falling out. Battered family photos were taped to the door along with pictures of a beach landscape from a magazine and a 1940's film star that he didn't recognise. He briefly glanced around the hallway, full of chattering students at break time, some nervously noticing his presence whilst others were too concerned in their own matters to worry about a missing student and a man looking through her locker.  
  
Suddenly a girl, of about sixteen years of age he guessed, sidled up next to him and opening the adjoining locker next to Theadora Maxwell's. She was loudly chewing gum, her blonde hair pulled up into a high ponytail and wearing what he could only imagine what the school cheerleading outfit. Deciding that amongst the American History textbooks and yellowing photos that he wouldn't find out why Thea disappeared, he turned to the girl standing next to him. "Excuse me, were you friends with Theadora Maxwell?" He asked and she turned to him with a derisive snort.  
  
"*No-one*…" She emphasised , "Was friends with Thea…. Bookish if you know what I mean." She added as an afterthought.   
  
"Did you notice anyone bullying Thea at school or did she seem overly upset at school?" Martin pressed.  
  
The girl shook her head, "Uh, not really. Everyone thought she was pretty cool…sure, there was some jealousy that all the guys wanted to scre…*date* her…" The girl amended her language, "But no-one bullied her. Grace made sure of that."  
  
"Grace is her sister?" Martin questioned and the girl nodded emphatically.  
  
"Although, there was someone who was pretty close to Thea." She said gesturing towards the long windows of the corridor where outside a girl sat on the grass underneath a tree. "You should ask her. She's called Rae Jenkins. She and Thea had a *special* relationship." The girl said and gave him a quick look up and down appreciatively. "If I were a few years older…" She said before turning on her heel and shaking her hips.  
  
Martin just shook his head. At even his young age, he probably could have fathered a sixteen year old like her. Walking out of the doors, checking for any sign of Vivienne who was grilling the teachers, he approached the tree from behind. "Excuse me? Are you Rae Jenkins?" He said to the back of Rae's head.  
  
Rae wiped her eyes, Martin could see that clearly enough, and coughed slightly. "Who's asking?"  
  
"FBI, Missing Persons Squad." He walked further round to the front of the tree where he noticed Rae's eyes were streaming.  
  
"You're here about Thea, right?" She said tearfully, but trying to disguise her upset.  
  
"Yes, ma'am." Martin said respectfully, aware of Rae's distress. "I was pointed in your direction by another student. She said you and Thea were quite close."  
  
Rae looked up at him, continuing to wipe her eyes but to no avail. "Sorta." She answered vaguely. Her eyes were suspicious, wondering what he was going to ask her next. Martin crouched down to be on her eye-level.  
  
"What kind of relationship did you have? Acquaintances? Friends? Best friends?" He threw the questions at her quickly, the words almost blending together into a garble. "Did you talk to her often? Did she have a boyfriend? Did she hate her parents?"  
  
"I was in love with her!" Rae said, trying to stop the barrage of questions. "Is that what you wanted to hear? I was in love with her!" She said, covering her face with her hands.  
  
Martin felt guilty, but almost pleased that he'd uncovered a part of Thea's life that could lead to her recovery, "Was she in love with you?" He asked, moving to sit next to her on the luscious green grass.  
  
"We were dating….right before she went missing." Rae explained. "That night, before she disappeared, we planned to go to the movies and have a meal or something." She said, the tone of her voice illustrating that she was remembering a time when everything was so much easier. "She wouldn't have run away…" She mused tearfully and Martin handed her a tissue.  
  
"Did Thea ever tell you that she was worried about a stalker maybe? Or that she'd been getting disturbing prank phone calls?" Martin asked, relaxing his attitude around Rae now he found out what her "special relationship" with Thea was. "Did she ever indicate to you that she was worried about someone following her?"  
  
Rae shook her head emphatically, "Never. She'd never said anything like that to me." Rae insisted, "Have you talked to her sister, Grace? She might know something more."  
  
"We're already questioning her at the moment." Martin informed her with a monotone voice. "So you can't think of any reason why Thea would run away?" Rae shook her head, "No-one at school been bothering her?"  
  
"Well…" She said hesitantly, "I'm not sure if this means anything."  
  
"Go on."  
  
"A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Main Office to collect the register for my English class and there was this guy at the front desk. He was asking for Thea." She said, more and more details coming back to her. "He had a Russian accent…I remembered that so well 'cause we were watching some old Russian movies together the night before."  
  
Martin got his pad out of his coat pocket, "Would you be able to give me a description of him?"  
  
Rae nodded, "I could probably pick him out of a line-up," She said.  
  
"So what happened after he asked for Thea?" Martin continued.  
  
"Well he started to get really angry when the receptionist wouldn't tell him where she was. This guy kept saying his was a family friend but he was dressed really roughly and he only wanted to talk to Thea and not Grace." Rae explained. "I just stood in the background of the office until he disappeared."  
  
"How long was he there?"  
  
"A couple of minutes. The receptionist could probably give you a description too." Rae told him, turning to face Martin. "Do you think he could have something to do with her disappearance?"  
  
"We're going to have to check with her parents…but he may be our strongest lead." Martin said, rising from the ground, and wiping off any remainders of grass stuck to him. Rae rose also, standing in front of him shyly.  
  
"Can you keep in contact with me? Tell me what's going on?" She pleaded and Martin frowned uncertainly. "Anything would do."  
  
"Maybe you should approach the Maxwells. I'm sure they'd appreciate you being there to help look after their youngest daughter." Martin suggested.  
  
"Yeah." Rae said quietly.  
  
"And if you think of anything else, then ring this number…" He handed her his card.  
  
"Sure." She said smiling slightly, and Martin walked away down the school path and took out his cellphone and dialled Jacks number.  
  
"Jack?" He spoke into his phone.  
  
"Yeah?" The man spoke gruffly.  
  
"I think we got our suspect."  
  
*  
  
Reviews welcome! 


	3. Revelations

Chapter Three  
  
*  
  
18 HOURS MISSING  
  
Jack walked through the entry doors to the Missing Persons level of the FBI building with a dishevelled man handcuffed to Danny behind him. Samantha rose from her seat and walked towards her superior. "That the guy?"  
  
Jack nodded, "We're gonna have to wait for a positive from Rae Jenkins but he matches the arists impression." He told her, indicating to Danny for where to take the man. "You wanna sit in on this?" He asked her.  
  
Samantha just nodded and they towards the room where the mystery man was being sat down. He briefed her quickly, "He claims he doesn't speak English too well, but its a cover. He knows every word we say. But he claims he doesn't know who the hell Thea is."  
  
Sam snorted derisively, "Except that he was spotted at her school. Bastard."  
  
Jack stopped dead and turned to Sam, "Are you getting too involved in this?"  
  
"What do you mean?" She said incredulously. "This is our guy. He can tell us where Thea is."  
  
"We don't know that. This whole thing could be entirely innocent and I don't want you jeopardising our investigation because you've become close to the family, OK?" He reprimanded her harshly. Too harshly, he said to himself mentally. He could tell as Samantha tried to regain her confidence.  
  
"If you don't think I can be trusted on this case then maybe I shouldn't be working on it."  
  
"Samantha-" He said, quietening his voice significantly, "I didn't mean it like that. It's just our priority is getting Thea back safely not trying to prove this guy is guilty."  
  
  
  
Sam nodded and followed him into the room, quietly seething. In a way, she knew he was right. He could tell that she was getting too close to the family to be able to look at the case objectively. But she desperately wanted to stay on this case...  
  
The pair sat down and Jack quickly told Danny to meet Martin and go back to the school and find Rae Jenkins. The man, who had called himself "Ivan" looked nervous at their presence. Jack decided to approach this interview head on. "Why were you at Elspeth Moore High School two weeks ago?" He asked.  
  
Ivan visibly squirmed. Jack held out a picture of a smiling Thea in her yearbook photo. "Do you recognise this girl?" Ivan shook his head. "That's funny 'cause you were looking for her. You asked for her by name."  
  
"Lies." He said in a heavy Russian accent. He tried to avoid eye contact with either Samantha or Jack.   
  
"We have two witnesses who place you at the school..." Samantha said, "And you're still denying that you were there?"  
  
He looked around the room nervously, wondering if any of the mirrored panels concealed the witnesses that Samantha spoke of. "I haven't done anything wrong."  
  
"Then tell us who you are and why you were at the school?" Samantha pressed urgently. "Every minute you spend avoiding our questions is another minute that we lose looking for her."  
  
Ivan looked down into his lap guiltily. "Dusha. Dusha Stamarowski." He said simply. Jack and Samantha looked at each other, unsure of what the man was saying. Ivan noticed their eye contact and confusion so he elaborated. "Theadora Maxwell..." He said with a derisive tone, "...is Dusha Stamarowski. My daughter."  
  
Samantha and Jack looked at each other in shock. "You're telling us that Thea is your biological daughter?"  
  
Ivan nodded, "Not that she cared."  
  
Jack scowled in realisation, "You went to the school to talk to her, didn't you?"  
  
Ivan looked up at him, genuine disappointment in his eyes. "My wife begged me. For years to find her. We thought that she would come back to us and we could be a family."  
  
"Instead..." Samantha interrupted, "She rejected you and your wife."  
  
"She didn't want to know us. She told us that she had a different family and as far as she cared, we were non-existent to her." Ivan said seething.  
  
"So you got angry." Jack said matter of factly. "Did you follow her home from school? Lead her down an alley? Did you try and convince her to leave the Maxwells? Wasn't she listening to reason? Did you get so angry..." Jack rose from his seat, leaning over to within mere inches of Ivan's face. "Did you get so angry that you wanted to kill her? Did you kill her Ivan? Did you?"  
  
During Jack's interrogation, Ivan's face crumped further and further into despair as the accusations flew at him. "No!" He shouted, tears starting to run down her face. "Whatever she said, she would always be my daughter. Nothing could change that!"  
  
Jack sat back down in his seat, not fully convinced by Ivan's protestations. "Do you have an alibi for yesterday night?"  
  
Ivan nodded enthusiastically, "I was at the Caplinsk bar with my wife....thirty people must have seen me there." He said looking nervously at Jack. "Do you really think I had something to do with her disappearance?"  
  
Jack decided to answer honestly, "Yes."  
  
*  
  
They exited the briefing room, leaving Ivan with an attorney that he requested after Jack's last words. Sam walked to her regular seat at her desk, sighing. "I just don't think he's telling us the truth. The Caplinsk bar's Russian...he could probably get half of them to lie for him no problem."  
  
Jack shook his head. "Maybe he's covering for his wife. He didn't seem to be too insistent on finding his daughter until his wife pestered him enough."  
  
"True." Sam conceded before Vivienne entered with a frown.  
  
"Turn on the TV." She ordered and Danny who was trawling through suspect files wheeled it out and pressed the "ON" button. On the screen was a picture of a familar newscaster and a photo of Theadora in the top right hand corner. The four remained silent as the news anchor spoke...  
  
"A New York teenager disappeared yesterday after walking home from school. Currently there are no witnesses but sources say that a ransom, to her wealthy financier parents, could come in at any moment but there is no definitite answer as to whether this would lead to her release..." The TV was then turned off and Jack turned to his officers.  
  
"Someone call the Maxwells....I don't want them seeing things like this." He complained rubbing his hand over his face. "Scare mongering isn't going to do anyone any good."  
  
"What do you want to do?" Samantha asked.  
  
"I want you and Danny to go back to the house...ask Grace some more questions. See if the older brother's jetted in yet."  
  
"Thinking they know more about this than they let on?" Danny asked.  
  
"Definitely." He said watching Ivan be dragged back downstairs. "Definitely."  
  
*  
  
I hate this chaper - The next should be better! 


End file.
